The full-back Ben Foden believes England's attacking potential will allow him full expression on the Millennium Stadium stage

'For years England were branded as a team who played very tight and used to grind out victories,' says Ben Foden. 'But now, with the players we've got, we can afford to play a wide game.' Photograph: Tom Jenkins
Tom Jenkins/Tom Jenkins

Certain assumptions are made whenever Wales play England. Not because they are true but because cultural stereotypes are hard to shift. Thus it is that a large section of the home support will expect England to play snore-inducing rugby tomorrow night. Boring, boring England. They cannot attack the way the Welsh boys do. "Try and stay awake," sniggered the trailer for the England tactical segment on Scrum V when the BBC programme did its otherwise spot-on preview show.

Boring? Even listening to Ben Foden for a few seconds is to understand English rugby is changing fast. Growing up just outside Chester, he knows a bit about Anglo-Welsh rivalry. "For years England were branded as a team who played very tight and used to grind out victories. People used to moan about it but now, with the players we've got, we can afford to play a wide game. I've always been an attacking player, I've always wanted to run with the ball. They haven't tried to rein me in."

It is precisely this modernist attitude that has enabled England to stir from the creative coma into which they slipped post-2003. Foden studied drama at A-level and, in the nicest possible way, it shows. On the darkest of Welsh nights he still wants to sparkle.

"I look forward to going down there and playing the villain in a pantomime for 80 minutes," he says. "I like being on a stage and having people will me on or roar against me. I think all rugby players, to get to the highest level, have to take chances and do things other players don't do."

Professional athlete meets troubadour. Foden sees no value in being the shy, retiring type. This time last year, though, the whirring heels of Northampton's crowd-pleaser were cooling on the bench. Delon Armitage was playing well and Foden, to his chagrin, was not getting a starting gig. Before the final match of the Six Nations, against France in Paris, he was beginning to wonder if it would ever happen. "Delon was playing very well and I was getting frustrated because I wasn't getting a chance. There comes a time in every man's career when you're sitting on the edge and you don't know whether you're going to fall."

So he went for it, scoring a memorable try, and has never looked back. "Like every moment in life, when it comes, it's do or die. I knew France was my time. They took all the shackles off and said: 'Right, go and play rugby.' That's what we did. I just forgot about the past and played the game for what it was. It was very refreshing."

This leads us to the eagerly awaited second act, starting tomorrow night in Wales's theatre of dreams. England are desperate to kick on and, in Foden, Ben Youngs, Chris Ashton and Toby Flood, they have several potential catalysts. One shrewd Welsh analyst, having reviewed clips of Foden's punt-receiving brilliance, concluded that England's No15 must have a bit of Welsh in him. Foden's father was born in Swansea and he has a Welsh grandmother but at no stage did pulling on a red jersey appeal. "I was always going to be playing for England so they couldn't have poached me. Never in doubt." A succession of brutal games in his youth against Wrexham and Mold – "I remember when I was 11 or 12 they had kids who looked 18 playing for them" – left their mark in more ways than one.

As for playing on a Friday, everyone knows he is more of a Saturday man. His relationship with Una Healy, from the girl band the Saturdays, is going strong, although she is otherwise engaged on stage in Newcastle tomorrow night. It is a shame, agrees Foden, that Una, Mike Phillips's girlfriend Duffy and Katherine Jenkins could not have been booked for a pre-match sing-off at the Millennium. "Get them all in there, yeah. Who's the best?!"

Such breezy enthusiasm is classic Foden, as is his unprompted revelation he dislikes his teeth. Apparently he is not alone in wanting pearly-white gnashers. "Delon Armitage has just got his done. I'm going to get mine done too." He curls his upper lip back to reveal one or two faintly vampire-ish fangs on either side. "Look at them ... they're not bad but they're not good. I'll sort them out." It is hard to imagine JPR Williams, let alone Bob Hiller, discussing cosmetic dentistry 48 hours before the biggest game of their careers.

But that is Foden all over. Even the abuse he got for posing in OK! magazine in flame-red pyjamas, Una draped across him, did not faze him greatly. "They weren't even my pyjamas. It was completely staged. It wasn't even at our house."

He takes the view, and why not, that promoting rugby need not be confined to Rugby World and that the fame game has its advantages. "I think it's positive to get the game out there and get as many followers as possible to games. But I think it needs to be controlled as well.

"You have to realise that sometimes the papers are there to bring you down because people love to read about a fall. They like to build you up to knock you down, especially some of the magazines."

Anxious about being hammered by gossip columnists? Wait until he meets Andy Powell. Foden, even so, is convinced there will be a happy ending for his side. "Every team always starts the tournament feeling confident but this is the first time for a while you can honestly say England must be favourites to win. We've got to see that as a massive positive, not shy away from it, and rise to the challenge. Hopefully it'll show in the way we play.

"We know we've got a real chance this year to do some damage and, hopefully, bring home some silverware. Long-awaited silverware."